Robot taught to think for itself

A robot that uses its own reasoning when faced with a task it hasn't completed
before has been unveiled by the Hasegawa Group at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology.

The robot
uses a technology called SOINN (Self-Organising Incremental Neural Network). Osamu
Hasegawa is Associate Professor at the lab and one of the system's
designers. He says: "So far, robots, including industrial robots,
have been able to do specific tasks quickly and accurately. But if
their environment changes slightly, robots like that can't
respond."

If it comes to a blank, it asks for help and can be taught how
to do a new task, which it will then remember. Hasegawa adds that
the system is also web-enabled and so this robot will be able to
communicate with other robots to get help on how to complete a
task.

The robot was filmed learning to pour a glass of water (or in
this case, seeds, as water near electronics is not a good idea) but
the commentator on DigInfo TV adds
that the robot was next asked to produce a glass of cold water and
decided itself to put down the glass and tumbler before trying to
pick up the ice.